The Euro Zone on Edge

RFE/RL

American economist Paul Krugman thinks introducing the euro was a mistake. But he also thinks it needs to be saved.

The current crisis in the eurozone is being driven by heavily indebted Greece, which is spiraling into political and economic chaos caused by a public backlash over government austerity measures. EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) leaders have demanded the measures in return for bailing the country out. Fears are rising that Athens is on its way out of the eurozone. Krugman thinks it probably is, and says the consequences would be "ugly."

"It's going to hit the Greek economy pretty hard; there will be some losses on loans to Greece, but those losses are probably going to happen regardless," Krugman says. "And if it's contained, if the Europeans do what's necessary so that it doesn't cause a full breakup of the euro zone, then it's not such a bad thing." But that's a big "if," says the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. Krugman is a strong opponent of austerity measures during economic crisis, which is the path many European leaders are currently on. Many European citizens agree with him, as evidenced by revolts against budget slashing in the streets and in the voting booth. Voters in France and Greece earlier this month soundly rejected pro-austerity governments.

Now the European Central Bank needs to help out, Krugman says, by becoming an "open-ended lender to banks and governments" and raising its inflation targets as a way to stem the crisis and save the euro. Read more ..

Health Care on Edge

The Hill

The University of Notre Dame joined other Catholic institutions Monday in suing the Obama administration over its contraception mandate. The lawsuit argues the mandate in the health-care law requiring that insurance plans cover birth control for women without a co-pay violates the religious freedom of Catholic institutions. The Archdiocese of Washington, the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Catholic University of America are among the other plaintiffs in the suit. Notre Dame's participation is notable because Obama gave a controversial commencement speech at the school in 2009. Anti-abortion-rights groups criticized the school for inviting Obama because of his position on abortion.

The suit was one of 12 similar actions filed Monday around the country, a release from the Archdiocese of Washington stated, bringing the total number of cases now pending over the mandate to more than 30. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, praised the trend in a statement. "We have tried negotiation with the administration and legislation with the Congress—and we’ll keep at it—but there's still no fix," he said. "Time is running out, and our valuable ministries and fundamental rights hang in the balance, so we have to resort to the courts now." Read more ..

The Health Edge

VOA

An independent panel of U.S. public health officials is recommending that physicians no longer use a blood test to screen men for prostate cancer. The Congressionally-created advisory group, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, says the widely-used test does more harm than good. Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the U.S. Last year, more than 240,000 mostly older men in their 60s got the news. An estimated 33,000 died of the disease.

The prostate is a small, walnut-shaped organ that’s part of the male reproductive system, producing the fluid that carries sperm. Since the 1990s, the so-called prostate specific antigen or PSA test has been a routine part of medical care for men aged 55 and older in the U.S. and other developed countries. The PSA test measures levels of a protein in the blood that are elevated in the presence of prostate cancer. If cancer is found, it is treated aggressively, in nearly 90 percent of patients, with radiation, surgery or estrogen therapy designed to shrink the tumor. But the PSA test has a high rate of false positives. So, men who turn out to have no cancer at all, or whose tumors are so small they pose no real health threat, often get unnecessary interventions such as uncomfortable and medically risky prostate tissue biopsies. Read more ..

The Digital Edge

VOA and Services

The price of shares of social-media giant Facebook plunged on its second day of stockmarket trading. Investors quickly started selling the stock on the Nasdaq exchange Monday, sending the price of Facebook shares down 13 percent in the first hour. It later regained some strength, but still was down more than 10 percent in midafternoon trading at below $35 a share.

Facebook shares traded publicly for the first time on Friday, when they edged up to $38.23, 23 cents above the initial offering price.

With more than 900 million users, the social networking site is a well-known product. However, some financial analysts say they think the company is overvalued, and some projections of its future advertising revenue have been reduced.

The Nasdaq exchange said Sunday it mishandled the opening session of trading. Some investors say they lost money because of technical problems that prevented some large and small investors from completing stock trades. Nasdaq says it is recreating the mishandled trades to determine which stock buyers and sellers are owed compensation.

Edge of Terrorism

VOA

Yemeni officials said a suicide bomber has killed at least 96 soldiers and wounded more than 200 during a military parade rehearsal in the capital Sana'a. Officials said the bomber was dressed in a military uniform and detonated his explosives while hundreds of soldiers were around him. Yemen's defense minister was at Monday's rehearsal but was unharmed.

The soldiers were preparing for a parade on Tuesday to mark the unification of Yemen's north and south. Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was due to attend the parade. Reports by Yemen's state television showed dozens of soldiers sprawled on the ground. At a nearby military hospital, doctors worked to save badly wounded soldiers.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. But it coincides with a U.S.-backed Yemeni government offensive against al-Qaida militants who seized parts of the country's south last year as it was engulfed in a popular uprising against then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Mr. Hadi, who succeeded Mr. Saleh in February, has vowed to fight the growing presence of the terrorist network's regional affiliate, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Read more ..

The Afghanistan War

VOA and Agencies

U.S. President Barack Obama says the NATO summit in Chicago shows that the world is behind the strategy to help Afghanistan achieve peace and development. Mr. Obama spoke alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of the summit Sunday. The U.S. president is hosting representatives from more than 50 countries to discuss NATO's future in Afghanistan, from transferring all security control to Kabul in 2014 to providing assistance in the long term.

President Obama said all of this is part of a shared vision NATO has that Afghanistan can transition from decades of war to a transformative decade of peace and development. Mr. Karzai said that Afghanistan is looking forward to an end to the war and its transformation, so that it is no longer a burden to the international community. Earlier Sunday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said "there will be no rush for the exits" in Afghanistan, despite the new French government's promise to withdraw troops two years ahead of schedule. Rasmussen promised that the coalition would see its operation through until it successfully hands over security control to the Afghan government by the end of 2014. Read more ..

Pakistan on Edge

Cutting Edge Senior Correspondent

According to local telecommunications authorities, Pakistan restored access to Twitter on May 21, only hours after blocking the site over posts concerning a contest involving caricatures of Mohammed, the founder of Islam. Following an order from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Mohammad Younis Khan, speaking for the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, said "Twitter service has been restored." Thus ended a 12-hour hiatus in access to the popular website.

Khan said that PTA had been ordered by Pakistan’s ministry of information technology, but did not identify the reasons for the change. No word was forthcoming from the ministry.

Speaking earlier on May 21 before the ban was lifted, Khan said that "Facebook and Twitter were involved. We negotiated with both. Facebook has agreed to remove the stuff but Twitter is not responding to us." It was thus that the IT ministry had ordered Twitter to be blocked, he said.

On May 20, Khan gave the reasons for the ban, saying "The website has been banned by Ministry of Information Technology and the decision was conveyed to us. There was blasphemous material on Twitter." Khan blamed the “caricatures of Prophet Muhammad" for the shut-down. However, some tech-savvy observers in Pakistan expressed fears that the shut-down may have actually been a test of a URL-blocking filter being tried by Pakistan's government. Read more ..

The Battle for Syria

A Syrian human rights group says security forces have attacked a rebellious town in the country's central province of Hama, killing 16 people including children. Based in the UK, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian government artillery and gunfire hit the town of Souran on May 20. There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded near a team of U.N. officials and journalists who were touring the Douma suburb of Damascus. No one was hurt by the blast, which happened about 150 meters away from the group that included visiting U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous and the head of U.N. observers in Syria, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood.

A Syrian security official said gunmen had been active in Douma prior to the explosion, attacking and wounding about 30 security personnel. Recent fighting between government and rebel forces in the district has left its streets largely deserted. Douma has been been a major center of the 14-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule. Read more ..

The 2012 Race

The Hill

Democrats are crying foul over GOP suggestions that President Obama has a “secret deal” on missile defense with Russia.

The fight began in March, when a hot mic at a summit caught Obama telling then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he’d have more “flexibility” on the issue after the election. Medvedev famously responded that he would transmit that information to Vladimir Putin, who is now Russia's president. Republicans immediately attacked Obama for making a secret deal, and they used this week’s floor debate on the Defense authorization bill to highlight their argument. No one in Congress has been more vocal about Obama’s comments than Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who chairs the Armed Services subcommittee that deals with missile defense.

Turner mentioned a secret deal seven times during the committee mark-up of the Defense bill last week, and he took up the same line of criticism on the House floor Thursday. “The issue of the president’s secret deal with the Russians is not really one that’s open to interpretation,” Turner said. “When we ask what are the terms of this deal, Mr. President, the terms that you won’t let the American public see, he says nothing.” Read more ..

Wolrd Economy on Edge

The Hill

President Obama expressed confidence Saturday that there’s an “emerging consensus” from the world’s most industrialized nations that more must be done to promote growth and job creation to help Europe’s sputtering economy. Wrapping up a two-day G8 summit at the presidential retreat in Maryland, Obama together with the other leaders, urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to ease her push for austerity and endorse a pro-growth agenda that would help Europe’s economy accelerate.

In a brief statement to reporters at the end of the two-day summit, Obama said more work needs to be done to help Europe’s economy. “All the leaders here today agreed growth and jobs must be our top priority,” Obama said.

A central question facing Europe is whether Greece will be able to retain its membership in the European Union and keep the euro as its currency. Greece’s departure from the euro-zone would throw Europe into uncharted territory, which in turn would inject huge amounts of uncertainty into global financial markets—the last thing the still-struggling U.S. recovery needs. Obama emphasized the importance of a “strong and cohesive” Euro-zone and reaffirmed the leaders’ interest in Greece staying a part of the economic group while respecting its commitments.

In his brief remarks, the president sought to explain why Europe’s current economic crisis could hurt the U.S. and why more needs to be done to help the countries rebuild. “Europe is our largest economic partner,” Obama said, standing at a small lectern outside his presidential cabin, his sleeves rolled. “Put simply, if a company is forced to cut back in Paris or Madrid that might mean less business for manufacturers in Pittsburgh or Milwaukee and that might mean a tougher time for families who depend on that business. “That’s why even as we confronted our own economic challenges over the past two years, we’ve collaborated closely with our European allies and partners as they’ve confronted theirs,” Obama said.

But Obama—who is in reelection mode with six months to go in the presidential campaign—said Europe can emulate what the U.S. has done, embracing a growth agenda with an eye toward cutting deficits in the future. “We know it is possible,” Obama said. “In my earliest days in office, we took decisive steps to confront our own financial crisis from making banks submit to stress tests to rebuilding their capital. Obama said because of his administration’s work, putting in place some of the strongest financial reforms since the Great Depression “we’ve worked to get our own fiscal house in order in a responsible way." Read more ..

The Economy on Edge

The Hill

Any progress the country has made in recovering from the economic downturn is threatened by Congress' threat to undo financial reform, President Obama warned Saturday. "For the past three and a half years, we’ve been fighting our way back from an historic economic crisis," Obama said in his weekly address.

"We’ve recovered taxpayer dollars that were used to stabilize troubled banks. And we’ve put in place Wall Street reform with smarter, tougher, commonsense rules that serve one primary purpose: to prevent a crisis like that from ever happening again." "And yet," he warned, "for the past two years, too many Republicans in Congress and an army of financial industry lobbyists have actually been waging an all-out battle to delay, defund, and dismantle Wall Street reform."

Congress needs to "stand on the side of reform," Obama said. "We can't afford to go back to an era of weak regulation and little oversight," he said. Obama explained the rules in question require more banks to hold onto more capital as to not risk a taxpayer bailout if they make a mistake, as J.P. Morgan did recently. And if they fail, banks would be required by new regulations to have a "living will" to determine the way its assets would be distributed. Read more ..

World Economy on Edge

The Hill

2009 G8 Summit

President Obama and other world leaders opened the Camp David G8 summit Friday evening discussing a “dual track” approach with Iran while also attempting to focus on the political transition in Syria. But the European fiscal crisis hung over the talks.

At a two-hour dinner with leaders at the presidential retreat, Obama and the other world leaders — including the newly elected French President Francois Hollande — discussed the way forward with Iran with the intention of increasing pressure on the regime with a unified front.

Turning to Syria, the leaders discussed supporting the Kofi Annan plan and its call for political transition. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev appeared to support an international consensus on both issues. A senior administration official said Russia has been unified in the Iran talks. When the subject turned to Syria, there was not any disagreement among the world leaders that there needs to be a political transition. But the nature of the transition will be worked out in further detail in the coming days. Read more ..

Labor on Edge

The Hill

Democratic lawmakers have waded into what's becoming a messy union organizing battle at American Airlines.

Both senators and House members have sent letters to American Airlines CEO Tom Horton this week asking the airline to move forward with a union election at the company. The airline, in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, filed a lawsuit against the National Mediation Board (NMB) earlier this month that objected to the agency setting a union election for the Communications Workers of America (CWA) at the company.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Horton, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), as well as Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), urged him to hold the union election at American Airlines.

“While we respect American’s right to pursue this issue through the court system, we strongly urge you to allow the election process to move forward in the interim. Your workers have the right to a prompt and fair election, and we urge you to respect that right,” the senators wrote in their letter. Read more ..

The Edge of Defense

The Hill

On May 18th the House approved a sweeping defense authorization bill for 2013 that calls for the construction of an East Coast missile defense system in the United States by the end of 2015. The bill obligates $100 million next year to plan for the site, but the project would cost billions of dollars in later years that has yet to be funded. The language was derided by a House Democrat as an "East Coast Star Wars fantasy base" but nonetheless escaped further scrutiny during floor debate Wednesday and Thursday on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

By afternoon, members approved the bill in a 299-120 vote after approving dozens of amendments, some after fierce debate that revealed disagreements on issues such as detainee policy, nuclear cooperation with Russia and the speed of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Seventy-seven Democrats support the bill, while 16 Republicans opposed it. The NDAA authorizes $643 billion in spending for the Department of Defense and overseas contingency operations, $8 billion above the spending caps in last year's Budget Control Act (BCA) and $3.7 billion higher than President Obama's request. The House authorization level will lead to a showdown with the Senate, which is marking up the authorization bill in committee next week, because the Democratic-led Senate is expected authorize funding roughly at the President's level. Read more ..

Broken Borders

Examiner

A Democrat member of Arizona's House of Representatives who fights for illegal aliens' rights, Paul Ben Arredondo, was charged on Wednesday by a federal grand jury with bribery, fraud, attempted extortion and false statements he made to the FBI in connection with receiving more than $6,000 in tickets to sporting and special events while he was a Tempe, Arizona, council member and a member-elect of the Arizona House, according to a federal law enforcement official.

The indictment charges the 63-year-old liberal with one count of federal programs bribery, two counts of honest services mail fraud, one count of attempted Hobbs Act extortion and one count of making false statements. Arredondo will be arraigned on May 30, 2012, in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence O. Anderson. According to the indictment, Arredondo was a council member in Tempe for 16 years, until July 2010. He was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in November 2010. Read more ..

The Koreas on Edge

VOA

Japan has successfully launched a South Korean satellite. The historical accomplishment puts the Japanese in the same arena as European and Russian entities in the lucrative commercial space launch business. The roar of the H-2A launch vehicle shattered the early morning silence On the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima. The space center was illuminated as the liquid-fueled 57-meter high two-stage rocket rose off the pad with four satellites on board. Sixteen minutes after launch, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced the first payload had successfully separated.

The Arirang-3 satellite (also known as KOMPSAT-3) was then placed into orbit. The Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) says it is functioning normally. Also deployed Friday from the H-2A rocket was a satellite with the world's largest revolving antenna. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) is able to measure water temperature from the sea surface with an accuracy of 0.5 degrees Celsius. Scientists say the Japanese satellite, nick-named “Shizuku,” will play an important role in monitoring global water circulation and climate change. Read more ..

The Digital Edge

EE Times

The tremendous growth in mobile data traffic—Solon Management Consulting expects a more than 15-fold increase between 2011 and 2016 for Germany alone—will put strong pressure on operators. Mobile operators face significantly higher cost for providing additional network capacity. According to the Solon white paper "Mobile Data Growth: How operators can handle the traffic explosion," which is being released today, the cost for access and backhaul network could almost double within five years. Solon recommends a set of measures that will enable operators to provide bandwidth in a more cost-efficient way.

"Mobile operators need to act now to meet the mobile cost challenge," warns Stephan Kalleder, Principal at Solon and author of the white paper. Without adequate countermeasures, network expenditures will increase from 12 per cent of revenues in 2011 to 23 per cent of revenues in 2016 according to Solon estimates. "Since voice revenues are expected to grow moderately at best, the future profitability of mobile operators is strongly determined by how quickly they can improve the network cost base," says Kalleder. Read more ..

Russia on Edge

From RFE and Agencies

Dozens of opposition activists remain camped on a central Moscow square, despite police arresting some 20 fellow protesters overnight. Opposition leader Ilya Yashin was among those detained. The protesters moved to Kudrinskaya Square on May 16 after riot police uprooted them from another Moscow site where they had been camped for a week.

The sit-in demonstrations are part of a so-called "unlimited" protest, which the opposition launched after violent clashes between demonstrators and police on May 6, the day before Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a third term as Russia's president.

Pro-opposition television presenter Ksenia Sobchak, a driving force behind the sit-ins, visited the square following the arrests. "At the moment I think it's important to be here, and we'll see what happens, what [the police] are planning and whether they keep their promises this time on not dispersing the people who are gathered here," she told journalists. Sobchak said on her Twitter account that local district officials -- many of whom belong to the opposition -- had legalized the sit-in by granting it the status of a "festival." Read more ..

The Iranian Threat

Algemeiner

Majid Jamali Fashi’s execution in Iran this week is being linked to the Wikileaks’ release of U.S. diplomatic cables, by The Times of London. The UK paper reports that a Birmingham University professor said information detailed in a cable from the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, which identified a “licensed martial arts coach and trainer” who educated U.S. government personnel on how Iran pressures masters of martial arts to train the country’s Revolutionary Guards and Basij militamen, may have led Iran to arrest, convict, and hang Fashi.

Fashi, who was a professional kickboxer, was convicted of helping Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency assassinate Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, an Iranian nuclear scientist, two years ago, and was in Baku just days before the embassy cable was published. Iranian authorities claimed that Fashi admitted to receiving Mossad training in Tel Aviv, before returning to Tehran to plan the assassination of Ali-Mohammadi. Read more ..

The Edge of Terrorism

Examiner

U.S. House Democrats are ignoring calls by Republican lawmakers for them to offer an apology to the New York City Police Department for backing an amendment that effectively rebuked the NYPD over its counterterrorism surveillance and investigative techniques.

The formal rebuke of the NYPD, which failed to pass this week on a mostly party-line vote, would have punished the 40,000-member law enforcement department by prohibiting funding for police and security organizations engaged in alleged unconstitutional or unlawful discrimination.

GOP Rep, Peter King (R-NY) -- chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee -- and Rep. Bob Turner (R-PA) called the vote shameful, while several police officials said that the Democrats "stayed true to form." "The Democrats obtain campaign contributions from groups like CAIR and other Islamic organizations and they in turn protect them from the 'big bad cops,'" said one anonymous police officer who works in the NYPD's Arson & Explosion Unit. While the amendment would apply to any jurisdiction in the nation, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) who sponsored the legislation made it clear that he was targeting the NYPD, especially those divisions and units tasked with combating terrorism. Read more ..

From the Heartland

Singer Sarah Lockwood and her family are struggling to recover from both a messy apartment flood and the drought of response and empathy from her landlord. The Lawrence, Kansas singer returned home to discover several inches of raw sewage back up into her home. She resides in a basement apartment and a local back-up from a main forced sewage and stench into her residence. Four other units in her complex were wrecked by the sewage back-up. Now most of Lockwood's belongings are ruined.

"I have a 10-year-old daughter who has school tomorrow, with nothing to wear," she said.

Four families in the housing complex were forced to harvest what they could from the smelly miasma. The rest is a total loss. Equally upsetting to them, they complain, is the lack of concern from their landlord. "One tenant says Midwest Property management contacted carpet cleaners, but didn't do anything to help them Tuesday night," local media reported. Local media adds, "Some tenants received help from an area church. Others were forced to fork over cash for motels." See local coverage here.

Lockwood says it was not until Wednesday morning that she heard from her landlord, who finally offered to help with temporary housing. But not help has been forthcoming for her total loss. An Internet relief fund has been established to help Lockwood. See the donation site here. It's unclear if any of the residents will be reimbursed for damaged or destroyed property.

The 2012 Vote

The Hill

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is not apologizing for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars through his leadership fund in Nebraska’s Senate Republican primary, despite criticism from a Republican colleague. Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns (R) said Wednesday that DeMint should be careful about jumping into primaries in states where he does not fully understand the political dynamics. DeMint said Wednesday that money spent by his Senate Conservatives Fund helped make the Nebraska GOP primary competitive, which helped the winner, state Rep. Deb Fischer.

Fischer defeated state Attorney General Jon Bruning, who was considered the front-runner in the race until late, and Don Stenberg, the former state attorney general. “If we had waited until late, Bruning would have won by 20 points,” DeMint said. “In Nebraska, we got in early because there was a conservative in Don Stenberg and there was one we did not feel would fare well in the general election in Bruning,” he said. “If we hadn’t gotten involved there would have never been a race.” DeMint’s leadership PAC invested more than $900,000 in Stenberg by acting as a conduit for donors and making independent expenditures for him.

Johanns criticized DeMint indirectly on Wednesday. “I think you have to be very careful entering into the political fray in areas quite honestly you don’t understand,” Johanns said when asked if there was a message for DeMint in Stenberg’s loss, according to National Journal.

DeMint said Wednesday he was pleased with the outcome of the race. “I think we’re going to have a really great candidate,” he said. “I think we had a good outcome there.” “I’m not just willing to sit back and have K Street and a lot of the big interests decide who are candidates are,” he added. DeMint said spending by his PAC helped Fischer because Bruning had a big lead in the polls and fundraising at the start of the race. “I think she’ll tell you that and we all know that. Unless we had created a race, she would have never had a race,” he said. But DeMint says he’s not looking to take credit. “It’s only when we have a good candidate and an active grassroots, all we can do is add a little bit of a spotlight,” he said. “I’ve never said I was a kingmaker and I’m not. We don’t need any more kings up here.” Read more ..

Israel on Edge

VOA

The European Union this week continued the international condemnation of Israel's policy of building settlements in largely Palestinian areas. The enclaves are a stumbling block to restarting peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. But in a minor win for Palestinians, an Israeli court has ordered three small West Bank settlements to be demolished after ruling they were illegal. The houses of Ulpana overlook Beit El, an Israeli settlement of 7,000 people not far from the major Palestinian city of Ramallah. The Israeli High Court has ruled that five of Ulpana's 14 buildings are on land belonging to a Palestinian man. It has ordered Israel's government to demolish them and evict the 30 young families living there.

Palestinians and much of the international community consider all Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be illegal. But the case regarding Ulpana is much narrower, and the ruling could pose a challenge for Israel's new unity government. Residents here say they bought the land legally although the sale was never registered. The Israeli administrator for the area, Danny Dayon, says the houses were built with government loans. Read more ..

The Edge of Terrorism

VOA

With U.S. troops reportedly guiding air raids from a nearby base for the first time, Yemeni jets attacked positions of al-Qaida insurgents Tuesday in southern Yemen's Abyan province. Yemeni officials said a "four-pronged assault" on the militants was being waged on the ground, backed by heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, and that U.S. troops stationed at al-Annad air base in Lahj province were providing logistical support.

The reported participation of U.S. forces in directing Yemeni fighter jets would represent a major escalation in U.S. involvement. The U.S. Defense Department acknowledged having trainers in Yemen, but a Pentagon spokesman said he would not go into detail about whether these operations were specifically stationed in Lahj province. In all, the raids and ground fighting reportedly killed more than 40 people, including al-Qaida militants and civilians. Read more ..

The Battle for Syria

VOA

The United Nations says a roadside blast hit a convoy carrying a group of its unarmed observers near the Syrian city of Hama on Tuesday, damaging their vehicles but not injuring the monitors. Meanwhile, Syrian activists have accused the government of killing at least 20 mourners at a funeral in the same area.

The U.N. mission in Syria says a convoy of four of its vehicles was struck by a blast from an improvised explosive device as it drove through the town of Khan Sheikhoun, near the flashpoint city of Hama on Tuesday afternoon. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said, “Three U.N. vehicles were damaged, but no U.N. personnel were hurt in this explosion. The mission has sent a patrol team to the area to help to extract those U.N. military observers.” Upwards of 200 U.N. monitors are on the ground in Syria, mandated with monitoring the cessation of hostilities that went into effect on April 12, but which has all but collapsed with continued violence in a number of cities across the country. Read more ..

Broken Banking

The Hill

White House press secretary Jay Carney said that in the wake of JPMorgan Chase's $2 billion trading loss, it's "amazing" that some — including presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney — are still looking to repeal the president's Wall Street reform law. Speaking to reporters Monday, Carney said the staggering loss reinforces the need for the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the president's call for tougher financial regulations. "The president fought very hard against Republicans and Wall Street lobbyists to get Wall Street reform passed," he said, according to a pool report.

"This merely reinforces why the president was right to take on this fight," he added.

Carney did not mention Romney by name, but the president's reelection campaign jabbed at the GOP front-runner over the weekend, as the nation's largest bank was still reeling from its big trade gone wrong.

"Mitt Romney has been clear that he would repeal Wall Street reform, an engraved invitation for Wall Street to return to the biggest, riskiest bets that crashed the economy, destroyed trillions of dollars of wealth, and cost millions of workers their jobs," said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, according to Bloomberg.

Romney has repeatedly called for the repeal of Dodd-Frank on the campaign trail, but his campaign highlighted his belief in "the importance of oversight and transparency in the derivatives market" once JPMorgan's trade attracted headlines. It also noted that Romney believes some provisions of the law have merit.

Carney also pointed out that Dodd-Frank was never intended to prevent trading losses on Wall Street, but simply to protect taxpayers from bearing the brunt of them. In JPMorgan's case, he said, the appropriate parties were paying the price for the bad trade. Read more ..

Germany on Edge

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered an embarrassing loss in the May 13 legislative election in Germany's most populous state as she continues pushing for economic austerity in Europe.

Preliminary results show the opposition left-wing Social Democrats winning 39 percent of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia. Merkel's Christian Democrats won 26 percent. The Social Democrats will likely form a coalition with the Greens in the state. The conservative candidate for governor, German environment minister Norbert Roettgen, calls the May 13 election a bitter defeat that really hurts. Some German political analysts say the results in North Rhine-Westphalia may be a harbinger of next year's federal election, in which Chancellor Merkel plans to seek another term Read more ..

America and China

TheHill

U.S. lawmakers have been unusually silent about federal regulators' decision to allow a Chinese bank to take over 13 bank branches in New York and California, suggesting that they think American banks have much to gain.

Members of both parties usually relish the chance to bash China on everything from government subsidies to the yuan's exchange rate. Yet the May 9 decision by the Federal Reserve to certify a Chinese bank acquisition for the first time was met by near-universal silence.

Scott Talbott, the head lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, said that's unsurprising. The U.S. wants China to open up its financial services market – foreign ownership of Chinese banks is limited to 25 percent – and allowing a Chinese presence in the U.S. is seen as a necessary trade-off. “What this boils down to is that there are a ton more potential customers in China for U.S. banks than there are potential customers for the Chinese here,” Talbott said. “So in the long run, the approval is going to benefit the U.S.”

The decision on May 9 allows Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which is 70 percent owned by the Chinese government, to take an 80 percent stake in a Hong Kong-based bank with 13 branches in the U.S. The Fed also allowed two other Chinese banks to open branches in New York and Chicago. The decision came days after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner met with top Chinese officials for annual talks in Beijing. China agreed during those talks to allow foreigners a greater stake in Chinese brokerage firms.

The Edge of Terrorism

From VOA and Agencies

Caesar Achellam of Lord's Resistance Army

The Ugandan military says it has captured a commander of the Lord's Resistance Army during an operation in the Central African Republic. Caesar Achellam was seized on May 12 following a firefight with Ugandan forces. The arrest of Caesar Achellam is a major victory for multi-national forces combating the LRA across central Africa.

The operations center in the Central African Republic, shared by the Ugandan military and American Special Forces, has posted Achellam's photograph to a wall, next to the other top targets in the LRA, including rebel leader Joseph Kony. The Reuters news agency quoted Ugandan military spokesman Felix Kulaigye describing Achellam as “a big fish.”

The military says he was arrested in the Central African Republic, one of the countries where the LRA is known to operate. The group once numbered in the thousands, but U.S. and Ugandan military officials believe there are only a few hundred fighters left. Read more ..

The Battle for Syria

Cutting Edge Senior Correspondent

Patriarch Gregorios III Lanham of Antioch

The fighting between Syria's President PaAssad and dissidents seeking to overthrow his government made a disturbing turn in at least two different areas of the country. Recently near the city of Homs, according to Vatican sources, combatants have forcibly expelled all Christian families from the village of Al Borj Al Qastal in the province of Hama. News agencies and local Church sources confirmed that militias of the composite Syrian Liberation Army had penetrated the village, driving out all Christian families and taking possession of their homes and turning a church into a military headquarters. The village had been home to approximately 10 Christian families who are now refugees.

In another incident, Father George Louis, a Catholic priest and pastor of St. Michael's parish in Qara, Damascus province, was attacked in his home during the early morning hours on May 11. According to Vatican sources, it was at dawn on May 11 that two masked gunmen entered Fr. Louis' home, threatening him and demanding the keys to the house. Binding his hands and tying him to a chair, one of the them struck him on the head with a glass bottle that caused a deep wound. While the priest was bleeding profusely, the assailants struck him again, breaking his teeth. Read more ..

The North Korean Threat

From VOA and Agencies

The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea say they will not tolerate further provocation from North Korea, amid fears that Pyongyang is preparing for a new nuclear test. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made the remark Sunday after meeting in Beijing with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. North Korea's failed rocket launch last month led to sanctions from the U.N. Security Council. The launch drew immediate condemnation from the United States and its allies, who view it as a disguised ballistic missile test barred under U.N. resolutions. The three leaders decided Sunday to start free-trade negotiations before the end of the year. They also signed an investment agreement. China, Japan and South Korea are the three largest East Asian economies. At the same time, the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan pledged to work together to keep North Korea from escalating tensions, saying it is unacceptable for Pyongyang to conduct a nuclear test or other provocative acts after last month's rocket launch. Read more ..

The 2012 Vote

The Hill

Senate Democrats facing difficult reelections are breaking with President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, a sign the issue is politically dangerous in battleground states. Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.), the two most vulnerable Democratic senators, have declined to endorse Obama’s call for the legalization of gay marriage.

Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Bob Casey (Pa.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.), Democrats who have easier races but in states that could become more competitive by November, have also backed away from Obama’s stance.They all represent states with constitutional amendments or laws banning same-sex marriage. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) predicted Thursday the Democratic Party would adopt a pro-gay marriage plank in its platform. While that may happen when delegates to the Democratic National Convention meet September in Charlotte, N.C., the party remains divided. Read more ..

Syria on Edge

VOA

Mass protests broke out across Syria on Friday, a day after at least 55 people were killed in twin bombings that marked the deadliest attack since the start of the anti-government uprising 14 months ago. The car bomb explosions in Damascus Thursday were among a string of attacks that have occurred since U.N. observers arrived in Syria to monitor a shaky cease-fire brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.

State television reported Friday that troops killed a suspected suicide bomber in the northern city of Aleppo. The report said the would-be attacker's car was filled with 1,200 kilos of explosives. The Syrian government on Friday urged the U.N. Security Council to take action to combat terrorism, in the wake Thursday's blasts.

State media said the government made the plea in letters to the Security Council and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon. It said "escalating crimes" were proof that Syria is facing terrorist attacks led by groups receiving foreign support. There have been several attacks in Damascus since the anti-government uprising began 14 months ago. These were the most deadly. Read more ..

China on Edge

From VOA News and Agencies

Anti-Chinese Protests in Manila

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in Manila gathered May 11 to show supporthfor the Philippines in a simmering standoff with China over a disputed island chain in the South China Sea. Many of the protesters waved national flags, chanted anti-China slogans, and carried signs calling for the Chinese government to pull its ships away from the contested Scarborough Shoal, known as Panatag in the Philippines.

Rally organizer Emman Hizon says he wants the international community to help resolve the month-long dispute. "The main objective of the protest action is to call the attention of the international community with regards to the Chinese government's continuing and escalating intrusions in the Panatag shoal area, which we strongly believe is part of the Philippines' territory," said Hizon.

China has issued a safety warning to its citizens in the Philippines and is calling on Manila to ensure that the demonstrations remain peaceful. However, the protests appeared to be smaller than expected and no violence was reported. Read more ..

Pakistan on Edge

VOA

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has stopped most of its relief operations in Pakistan following the brutal murder of one of its workers. These types of killings are making it increasingly difficult for foreign aid groups to operate in the country. The decision by the International Committee of the Red Cross to suspend operations in three of Pakistan's four provinces is expected to affect thousands of people who depend on the aid. ICRC spokeswoman Anastasia Isyuk says the move is in response to the murder of 60-year-old Khalil Dale, who worked for the organization in Baluchistan province.

"Due to this recent attack against the ICRC, we decided to completely reassess the balance between the humanitarian impact of our activities and the risks that our staff face," said Isyuk. Authorities recovered the mutilated body of the British aid worker on April 29, four months after suspected militants abducted him on his way home from work in the city of Quetta. A note with the body said Dale died because the Red Cross failed to pay ransom for his return. The ICRC suspended its work in Baluchistan immediately after the discovery of Dale's body. Read more ..

The 2012 Vote

The Hill

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren was listed as a minority professor by a second law school in a report detailing the school's progress in creating a diverse faculty. In addition to Harvard University, where Warren is on faculty, the University of Pennsylvania Law School also touted Warren as a minority, according to an April 2005 document. Warren taught at the Philadelphia school in the 1980s and 1990s.

The revelation that a second listed Warren as a minority raises further questions about her claim to Native American heritage and whether she used that claim to further her career, as has been claimed by her political opponent GOP Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.). Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard had named her as a minority when promoting its faculty's diversity, and said she never brought up her heritage when looking for jobs. Warren said she had listed her heritage in faculty directories more than 15 years ago in hopes of meeting others with similar backgrounds.

The question of whether Warren's claim to Native American heritage is legitimate has become a major focal point in her race against Brown. Warren grew up in Oklahoma, where many residents have Native American ancestry, but has been unable to independently substantiate her claim to the heritage. Read more ..

The 2012 Vote

The Hill

by: Gage Skidmore

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said the White House is trying to sabotage his version of the DREAM Act by “ordering” activists not to work with him so that President Obama can maintain his hold on the Latino vote in the 2012 election.

“One of the things that already been documented is that the White House has been — the articles that have been written, two or three by now, the White House has been calling in DREAM Act advocates and asking them, almost ordering them, not to work with me on this issue,” Rubio said Thursday on the Laura Ingraham radio show. “They have been counting on using this issue as a wedge issue in October to drive up turnout.”

Rubio is considered to be on Mitt Romney's short list of possible vice-presidential choices. Rubio’s proposal, expected to be finalized this week, is a scaled-back version of the Democrat-backed DREAM Act, which offers a pathway to citizenship to illegal immigrants who came to the United States when they were young and then go to college or serve in the military. Rubio’s proposal instead offers non-immigrant visas that would eventually allow them to apply for citizenship. Read more ..

The Defense Edge

The Hill

The House voted Thursday to override steep cuts to the Pentagon’s budget mandated by last summer's debt deal and replace them with spending reductions to food stamps and other mandatory social programs. While doomed in the Senate and opposed by the White House, the legislation, which would reduce the deficit by $243 billion, is a Republican marker for post-election budget talks with the White House. Members approved the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act in a party-line 218-199 vote. As expected, the bill was supported by nearly all Republicans — only 16 opposed it, and no Democrats supported it.

Broken Government

The Hill

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced on May 9 that it will keep small post offices open with shorter hours as it tries to ensure rural access to mail services. Postal officials said the plan would balance the agency’s need to both serve customers and cut costs, and said the proposal would save about $500 million per year. “We think we ended up with a win-win here,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe told reporters.

Donahoe had hinted in recent weeks that the USPS was moving away from post office closures, which have been strongly opposed by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. USPS said last year that it was looking at roughly 3,700 post offices as part of its consolidation plans, and postal officials on May 9 noted that nearly nine in 10 rural post offices lose money.

With mail volume declining, USPS currently loses roughly $25 million per day, and the agency has said it is looking to shave $22.5 billion from its annual costs by 2016. Rural access to postal services has been a key issue in Congress, where lawmakers are working on legislation to overhaul postal operations and put the service on a sounder fiscal path. Read more ..

Environmental Edge

Cutting Edge Senior Correspondent

According to a news release from U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D) and Congressman Dave Camp (R), sponsors of legislation to speed up the creation of a plan to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, have applauded an announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers that efforts to block the invasive species have been accelerated. Subsequent to the introduction of the bill, Corps of Engineers has announced that it will complete a set of options for permanent barriers to stop Asian carp and other invasive species in 2013, years ahead of schedule. Last week, a power failure and equipment malfunction temporarily shut down the electric barrier at the Chicago Waterway that is the only physical barrier to the entry of the voracious Asian carp into the Great Lakes.

Senator Stabenow said, "I am pleased the Army Corps has agreed that efforts to stop Asian carp must be accelerated. There is still much work to do before permanent barriers are completed, but having action moved years ahead of schedule is a very positive development." Commercial and sport fishermen, environmentalists and others are concerned that the admission of the non-native Asian carp would virtually destroy the native fish population, which includes lake trout, sturgeon, walleye, perch, native carp, and other species. Introduced in the 1980s in Deep South fishfarms, Asian carp have since been naturalized in lakes and streams in the southern U.S. They are known to jump out of the water, especially when disturbed by the noise produced by boat motors. Injuries and deaths of boaters and fishermen have resulted. Read more ..